Same Job, Two Engines: InnoDB and Iceberg Internals Compared
marcbpaul · hn · 2026-10-13
A deep-dive comparing two storage engines built for very different workloads: InnoDB (MySQL's OLTP default) and the Apache Iceberg table format for analytical lakehouses.
The post walks through their internals side by side—data layout (B+ trees vs partitioned Parquet files and metadata trees), transactions and concurrency (locks with redo/undo vs snapshot isolation and optimistic concurrency), indexing and query paths, and schema evolution—explaining why each design fits its niche: high-frequency small transactions versus massive scans and time travel.
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